First announced back in January of this year, Ballistic recently began to ship its Lifestyle Smooth Series Case for iPhone 4/4S ($30). It's designed to be protective yet slim, especially compared with the company's other, often bulky offerings. Available with a black, charcoal, hot pink, purple, or orange base, one of each case's main differentiating factors is a set of included, interchangeable corner bumpers. There's a lot to like here.

Lifestyle Smooth Series Case is made from sturdy, smooth rubber that bulges a bit at the corners. There, you’ll find the interchangeable rubber bumpers; four different colors ship with each kit. To remove them, you simply push from the outside in, and then do the opposite to insert the new one. Ballistics varies the colors of the corners based on the base you choose.

The case also provides protection for the volume and Sleep/Wake buttons; unfortunately, tactile feedback is all but lost on the latter, though it continues to work. Although the Dock Connector port opening is large enough to support plugs a bit larger than Apple’s, the extended corners prevent Universal Docks from making an electronic connection. Large headphone plugs should have little issue making connections thanks to the size of the port opening. Ballistic doesn’t include any screen protection, but the case does form a respectable plastic lip.

If Lifestyle Smooth Series Case sounds simple, well, it is, and that’s a big part of the appeal. For a reasonable price, you get a somewhat plain-looking but impressively slender case that offers surprisingly good protection for most of your iPhone. It also offers a little customization, which is not frequently seen in cases at this price level. Lifestyle Smooth Series Case is a good, respectively distinctive design, and worthy of our general recommendation.

Editors' Note: iLounge only reviews products in "final" form, but many companies now change their offerings - sometimes several times - after our reviews have been published.
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